1 cop dies, 97 faint during physical test

One police constable died and 22 others were hospitalised in Meerut, Sitapur and Kanpur after they fainted during a fitness test for promotion to sub-inspector (SI) rank. The constables were required to run 10 km in 75 mins.

IG (law and order) AP Maheshwari said Agraj Dubey of Farukhabad died. Another constable, who had to be rushed from Sitapur to Lucknow Trauma centre, was said to be critical. Nearly 97 of the 397 policemen, who appeared for the test, are reported to have fainted while attempting the run.

The UP Police Recruitment and Promotion Board had announced 5,487 vacancies for the promotion and the physical test was conducted in Meerut, Kanpur, Sitapur and Azamgarh on Wednesday. Around 3,900 constables had cleared the written examination to appear in this test.

Recently, Rajasthan director general of police Harish Chandra Meena was slammed for demanding that all new police recruits be selected only if they could run 10 km in an hour. Meena ran 10 km in 48 mins in Udaipur on July 7, and repeated the feat 10 days later in Kota.